Act 234 itemizes 12 separate areas of concern or charges that the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction Task Force is to report on in the work plan deliverable to the Legislature before December 1, 2009. They are:
Consultation with all state agencies that have jurisdiction over sources of greenhouse gases (for example, the Public Utilities Commission) to ensure that the recommended reduction measures “are complementary, minimize duplication, and can be implemented in an efficient and cost-effective manner”;
Identification of, and recommendations on, direct emission reduction measures, alternative compliance measures, market-based compliance measures, and financial or other incentives for reductions;
Review of what is being done elsewhere to reduce greenhouse gas emissions;
Investigation and development of analytical models useful for arriving at a cost-benefit analysis of the recommended plan for reducing Hawai`i’s emissions;
Consideration of the impact of regulations on small businesses, along with recommendations for a “threshold of greenhouse gas emissions below which emission reductions requirements shall not apply”;
Identification of opportunities to reduce emissions through “verifiable and enforceable voluntary actions,” such as carbon sequestration projects or best-management practices;
Examination of “market-based compliance mechanisms”;
Development of suggested rules for a market-based compliance system along with mandatory emission reporting requirements;
Development of suggested rules to “control mobile sources” of emissions;
Recommendations of ways to minimize “leakage,” which occurs when emissions reductions are achieved locally at the cost of increased emissions elsewhere;
Recommendations of a schedule of fees to be paid by greenhouse gas emission sources that are to be regulated; and
Hosting of a series of public workshops providing for comment on the work plan (at least one workshop per county).
In addition, the task force is to continue its work (a 13th step), by reviewing and revising its work plan “at least once every five years,” to “achieve the maximum technologically feasible and cost-effective reductions of greenhouse gas emissions.”
Volume 18, Number 7 — January 2008
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